DAP calls for the scrapping of the re-sitting of the UPSR English, Tamil and Maths papers as the 500,000 Std. 6 primary school pupils should not be made to suffer because of the shocking incompetence and lack of professionalism of the Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and his Ministry.
It is the height of irresponsibility and gross negligence of the first magnitude that the Education Ministry took13 days to announce the leak in the UPSR Maths and Tamil papers and the requirement for UPSR pupils to resit for these two papers on Oct. 9.
The Education director-general Datuk Dr. Khair Mohamad Yusof announced on Monday that the date was fixed after the Examinations Syndicate confirmed on Sunday that the papers sat by the UPSR pupils on Sept. 10 were leaked.
What boggles the mind is that after the disgraceful leak of the UPSR Science and English papers on Sept. 10 and 11, which were discovered on the very same day itself, it has taken the Examinations Syndicate, the Education Ministry and the Education Minister almost a fortnight to discover that the UPSR Tamil and Maths had also been leaked.
If this is not incompetence and lack of professionalism of the first order, I do not know what would qualify to come under the rubric of these two terms.
Muhyiddin shouted “sabotage” when the Science and English papers were leaked. Has he found any evidence that the leak of these two UPSR papers were part of an insidious political conspiracy to attack his integrity and that of his Ministry?
Muhyiddin’s allegation becomes even more intriguing when a former UMNO Minister recently blogged on the need to protect Muhyiddidn from being forced to resign by a faction in UMNO promoting “Queen’s English” UMNO leaders!
Is there any truth in this UMNO intra-party “cloak-and-dagger” intrigue?
Is Muhyiddin again shouting “sabotage” to undermine his integrity and that of his Ministry with the leak of the UPSR Tamil and Maths papers?
The Malaysian public are not interested in these UMNO political “fairy tales” but want to know why the Education Ministry has taken such an inordinate and even unconscionably long time to discover that the Tamil and Maths papers had leaked, when on Sept. 11 itself, the ministry had announced investigations into whether the UPSR Maths paper had leaked.
There can be no doubt that Muhyiddin had been most remiss in the discharge of his responsibilities as Education Minister.
Is he prepared to state publicly when he first learned about rumours of the leak of the UPSR Maths paper and when he was first informed categorically that the UPSR Maths paper had been leaked?
It is most unfair and unconscionable to put half a million Std. 6 pupils through enormous emotional stress and strain of re-sitting for the leaked UPSR papers, through no fault of the pupils.
Those responsible for the dastardly act of the leak of the UPSR papers for gain and profit must be brought to book without any mercy shown to them.
But those who, through their incompetence and utter lack of professionalism, had allowed such leak of UPSR papers to take place should not be allowed to escape blame and responsibility.
The least Muhyiddin can do to minimise the great emotional stress and strain he has brought on the half-a-million Std. VI pupils and their parents as a result of unbelievably great Ministerial incompetence is to take the immediate decision to scrap the re-sitting of the UPSR English paper on Sept. 30 and UPSR Maths and Tamil papers on Oct. 9.
The educational system in this country is one big mess to describe it. It has become more difficult to create the environment we need in order to transform education.
Education today has always been a polarizing issue, and minorities have always had to fight for access to good education. Parents don’t believe their children’s lives will be better than theirs. They no longer believe in the ability of government institutions to bring about any change.
The MOE should get rid of the silos of anti-intellectualism and the “long tradition to do with Special preferences to radical right in this country” and others, which are too large, bureaucratic and non-productive. It should “totally rethink” by pursuing a new agenda that focuses on quality curriculum and teaching instead. This fragmentation in education is just unacceptable.
I support the call to scrap the resit for tamil and maths papers on Oct.9 for the reasons YB Lim Kit Siang gave above.
I saw on TV how proud some people are of themselves to point to people’s ignorance that leaking exam papers are violation of the OSA. The man completely ignorant of the fact of having exam papers classified as state secrets is abuse of power and just say incompetence in the first place. You wonder why it can happen when they need the OSA for exam paper in the first place…
The main use of UPSR is to select pupils for residential schools. Do parents really want to have their young 12-year olds grow up without a warm loving home environment and bonding with their siblings and family and extended family members? Growing uo in hostels they cannot develop values and empathy that can be nurtured by parents, relatives and siblings. Let those who wish to compete for places in residential schools take the UPSR. And why not just use key subjects of BM, Mathematics and Science for selection. The most important criterion is still the willingness of parents to sacrifice their young children’s home upbringing and development. How important and vital is it to have children resit so many UPSR subjects?